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Hello Cynthia,
I realize i am terribly late but I only discovered this seminar now. However, all I can find is this post of yours. What was the assignment please. Sorry to be so ignorant. I will keep looking for the threads and replies.
Thanks
Rusty

OK, folks, here's my effort for 6 lines of background!

Nora sat in the pew, but the words of the sermon faded as the last image she had of him returned to her mind. Lying in the one good suit he'd owned, he'd looked peaceful, his face free of its usual scorn for her. Had she really consented to his mother's request to hold his funeral here? After all, Nora's church attendance had earned her the hard side of his hand when he'd discovered it. But he was gone now, just like the many bruises he'd given her over the years, and she was learning to breathe again. She thought she made a passable copy of a grieving widow. No one would think her capable of planning the "accident" that took his life, and that was good.

Hi Debbie,
I really like your paragraph. You've incorporated the backstory seamlessly into the Now of the story and you have set up a fascinating hook with a sting that seduces the reader into the future story.
From the background information, the relationships are well defined directing sympathy towards the narrator.You give a wonderful character shot of the main character, Nora, and have cleverly established her as narrator/protagonist/antagonist. This is a complex character to whom the reader already feels sympathy but delivers a shock that grabs our attention.

The setting is clear and it establishes the mood and links the story present to the past.

You background information twists our emotions, has established conflict building tension and of course, you already know, this is a terrific opening for a crime/mystery novel.
I hope you proceed with it.

I know you are asking Cynthia, Red Dragon, but I can help answer that. If you go to the Writers Cafe section on the CTR Forum page and click April in the announcements section is all the assignments for Week 1, 2, and this week.

The belt lay in the dresser drawer, listening as she screamed for one--any belt would do from the sounds of it. Soft footsteps approached, and as the drawer opened, a little face peered in. Slowly tiny hands softly ran over its leather. The hands trembled and tears fell causing the belt’s leather to become darker. Muffled sobs came from the tiny face as the belt felt the cold grasp of long hard fingers tightening around it.

Better late than never!

not sure if I got this assignment right... I didn't know if six lines meant six sentences (which is what I did) - and after reading it, I'm not sure if a reader could tell it was background...

Line one -- "This is a house of worship," the young man in black lead me down me down the church stairs, "the soup kitchen is two blocks over."

Line two -- Yet it wasn't the young pastor I saw, spewing his sour breath and sucking me into a vertigo of a sepia-like haze of mind gnawing memories, feasting on me like zombies after brains.

Line three -- Once again, I felt the rough wool of the old tattered sweater I used to clutched around me. "These men - they - I needed protection!"

Line four -- The young pastors lips moved, yet the sounds I heard belonged to Reverend, his undisguised disgust defecating all over what was left of my waning hope.

Line five -- Overwhelmed by the duel collision of past verses present, I plummeted to my knees, before him, stifling the painful cry as the shard gravel dug into my flesh, spilling crimson blood on holy grounds.

Line six -- "I'm homeless, sir, not helpless, and I will do anything you desire if only to be safe for one night."

(oops! Line seven --) A perverse smile curled the corners of the Reverend's lips, leaving no doubt in my mind there would be no sanctuary in the arms of God tonight or any other night again.

It's fun, it;s free, It's the whole month of May! Hope to see you there!